Imagine
by AJ McLeod
Summary: A drabble written for the Hobbit Imagines blog on tumblr circa 2013. Riley finds herself in an unexpected place and keeping a big secret. What will happen as the journey to the Lonely Mountain progresses?


**_Hello everyone!_**

 ** _She lives! Okay, so I wrote this some time ago (think when the Desolation of Smaug was still in theaters) for a blog on Tumblr called Hobbit Imagines. It combined two of the posts they had into one. This drabble (ish it's too long to be an appropriate drabble) is rough and unedited. There are many parts that are glossed over because I have a full time job and am neck deep in grad school and so I don't have time to churn out a Tolkien worthy epic tale. However, here it is in all it's unfinished glory._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

* * *

I wasn't sure exactly how I'd ended up in Middle Earth, but no sooner had my head settled that I saw a company of men clustered around me. Looking up at my surroundings, I decided it was better to keep my mouth shut until spoken to. One stood at the fore of the group, looking quite regal with his black hair hanging in long waves past his shoulders. His beard was short, comparatively speaking, as it didn't hang far below his chin.

"Who are you?" He asked glaring daggers at me with his blue eyes that were accentuated by his blue overcoat.

"Uh, Riley," I said quietly tugging on the sleeves of my oversized sweater and pulling my knees to my chest.

"Where are you from Riley?" Another of the group asked. I looked to see a white haired and bearded man staring down at me.

"I-I don't know…not from this place…"

"The poor lad probably has a nasty lump that would explain it," yet another one said. This one had salt and pepper hair with his moustache braided out to the side in a curved fashion.

"I-" I started to say but was interrupted by the same person.

"Now then lad, save your strength. I'm Oin, the healer of the company."

"What company?" I asked quickly before he could shush me again, even though I was by no means a 'lad'.

"Our company, Thorin Oakenshield…most recently known as the dwarves of Erid Lurin," he said proudly, as if I should be impressed by the foreign names. I did nod like I knew who they were, but it was mostly out of courtesy for him.

After that they dwarves took me in as one of their own, letting me come with them on their journey to Erebor, though I suspect that was because Oin would have pitched a royal fit if the rest had even thought of leaving me behind. I should have been more adamant about informing them that I was a girl, but I wasn't sure how well that would go over with a group of 13 dwarves and a creature called a hobbit, so I let it be.

Most of the journey was fraught with peril, and I was suddenly glad I'd spent so much time learning archery at summer camp when I was young as it came in rather handy in the various battles we faced. At least it came in handy until we were all taken captive by the wood elves of Mirkwood. I had to admit I was starting to feel like I was in fantasy role play game gone horribly awry. But we were led before the elven king, Thranduil, who seemed like he was in a perpetually bad mood. OF course the fact that I was there with his sworn enemy might have had something to do with it.

I honestly thought he was kidding when he ordered us put into their dungeon…or prison or what ever it was. I was shoved into a cell followed by Fili. I still have no idea why they put the two of us in a cell, but I wasn't complaining. I'd actually developed quite the crush on his brother on the journey, now if only he knew I was a girl. If he had, maybe he would have looked at me the way he looked at the elf captain who shut the door to his cell. Even I thought she was pretty, but most of the elves were, regardless of gender.

Sitting there in that prison, we contemplated how long we would rot in that place. I had a feeling he'd last longer than I would, since Thorin was nearly 200 years old.

"Fili?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah Riley?" he asked turning to look over his shoulder at me.

"Have you ever had a secret that you kept from everyone for so long that it would seem weird to break it?"

"No, I can't say that I have, why?"

"Cause I do, but it's kind of a big one and I'm not sure I want everyone else to know," I shrugged. Well if I was gonna do it, I was gonna tell someone that I at least knew to be trust worthy.

"What is this huge secret that you can't tell anyone but me?" Fili chuckled sitting down next to me.

"I'm not a dwarf."

"Well we knew that, it's hardly a secret."

"I'm also a girl," I added biting my lip.

"What?"

"I'm a girl…a 18 year old girl…"

Before he could respond, Bofur lamented that it was likely nearly dawn, which then prompted Ori's sad observation that we weren't on track for reaching the mountain by Durin's Day, whatever that was. Then as if on cue, Bilbo, our master burgler/hobbit popped his curly little head up with the keys.

"Not stuck in here you're not," he said as he began to free us of our captivity. Just before he reached mine and Fili's cell, I stopped Fili.

"What I just told you, don't tell anyone."

"It won't matter if they know."

"Still let me tell everyone in my own time, okay?" I asked as the door creaked open. Fili shrugged and let me out to follow master Baggins. We all made our way down to the cellar where we were instructed to get into a load of barrels which were then ceremoniously dumped into a river. It was starting to look like I should have told them about my gender sooner because as soon as we hit the water, my sweater clung to every single curve I had. But being around so many dwarves had brought out the stubbornness in me and I just hunkered lower into the wooden cage hoping that no one would notice. Shortly after we were in the water, Bilbo joined us and we were off away from the deep halls of the woodland realm. That is we were off until someone sounded the alarm that we were missing. I was worried that we wouldn't make it out of the kingdom, and we made it to a grate that stopped us from passing.

Suddenly there were worse things happening than just the elves barring our way. The band of orcs that had been systematically hunting us since Rivendell showed up ready for a slaughter. They almost got it, until Kili and I jumped up to release the grate. He fought bravely while I made a mad dash for the lever. I was almost there when I felt a searing pain blossom in my right leg near my knee. As soon as I put pressure on it my leg collapsed under me sending blinding flashes through my body.

I almost felt disconnected when I heard myself scream, it was definitely a girlish scream. Thankfully Kili opened the lever and thinking quickly wrapped me in his arms before rolling off into an open barrel. The movement jarred the arrow and then it snapped off when it hit the rim, eliciting another scream on my part. I was trying to hold on to the crumbling façade that I was a male, but it wasn't holding well now.

"So were you going to tell us?" Kili asked still holding me.

"Tell you what?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"That you're a girl, don't bother denying it because I can tell."

"When the time was right. And don't get too comfortable there laddie," I said using Oin and Gloin's term for him.

"Just making sure you don't fall over," Kili smirked, continuing to hold me until we lost the current and landed on an outcropping of rock.


End file.
